Food & Cooking Community

I believe plantains are actually a veggie. They are a starch, like potatoes.

and yes, tomatoes are a fruit. A little history, tomatoes and eggplant were not eaten by early settlers because they are from the Nightshade family, as in deadly nightshade, and were considered poisonous.

alright, but am i eating too much fruit?

I'm not satisfied with just eating "ONE" piece of fruit a day, i need to have MORE! I cant resist!

Fruits have natural sugars, which are essentially carbs. The thing about fruits is because of the sugar content they tend to burn up faster than veggies because your body will use carbs before any other type of nutrient for energy.
I really don't know what you are striving for in your diet. Like if you are diabetic or have heart probs that you should limit salt or if you are limiting sodium out of pure choice.....
anyhow back on topic, Fruits like bananas are a conundrum. An average banana is around 90 calories and "x" sugars, but as the banana ripens, It actually GAINS calories and sugars and carbs. So, If you eat a banana JUST after it's outta the green stage thats the 90 calorie marker, from then on, its all guess work unless you have a bunson burner and know how to burn a piece of your banana to check the calories in it every time you eat one, lol.
Grapes are good to eat , but again they really dont fill you up. Watermelon is one of the best choices in season, quite low in calories, mostly water. Aim for HIGH fiber fruits that will fill you up faster. Apples , pears, Asian pears, quince, and denser melons like cantalope, strawberries, blueberries, cherries.... stuff like that.
But I have found that the more "sweet" fruits I eat, the more I crave sweet things. Not saying that this happens to anyone else but I do think it's something to think about with your fruit cravings.

also wanted to say, try some sliced Yellow or red bell pepper instead of , say , the fruit at lunch. They are much much sweeter than a green pepper and have way lower sugars and starches in them. Super good without any dips too. Also theres a weird potatoe like thing out there called a jicama. Peel like a potatoe, cut into "matchsticks" , toss with drained mandarine orange slices and thin sliced red onion , serve with a light dressing of the mandarine juice,a little dijon mustard and some grapeseed oil or olive oil and a little honey..... this is really good and provides ALOT of crunch.

I would say 3 - 4 pieces of fruit a day are probably sufficient, and that it would be more balanced to replace some of the fruit with fresh vegetables, skim dairy, legumes and lean protein like egg-whites, chicken or fish, without increasing your calories.

Fruit is not high in protein, and if you increase your protein intake you may reduce the craving for fruit somewhat.

--thanks for the info.. Too bad my local Publix does not sell Jicama. But i have known about it because my family used to eat it back in their country

--thank you for the suggestion... i eat fruit so much because i have SO MUCH of it! but i do eat alot of beans!

I am eating a lot of fruit, but I think you have to determine why you are eating it. If you are eating to replace added sugars in your diet, I think you are fine (if you would be eating chocolate or ice cream but eat a banana, then I think fruit is a great choice). I have a terrible sweet tooth and am trying to get off eating too much sugar by replacing with fruit. After I get used to not as much sugar, I plan to minimize the fruit a little, but not too much because fruit is a healthy option. I am going to go two weeks without any added sugar. I am voice blogging about my progress on this website: http://www.gabbicat.com/shelbee

I understand, but I already dont eat added sugar. I just eat fruit for breakfast

Then I think you are fine to eat the fruit. It looks like you are getting maybe 4 servings of fruit a day and I think most healthy sites suggest you get 3 servings of fruit and 5 servings of vegetables so you are just getting an extra serving. I don't see how this can be bad because fruit has many vitamins and minerals and they have fiber which slow the absorption of the sugar into the bloodstream. I think all the talk about eating too much sugar is focusing on added sugar and not the sugars in foods (vegetables and low fat dairy have sugar in them as well and no one would say to limit eating those). I looked up how much sugar was in fruits and the berries have the lowest, cantaloupe, papaya and apples are medium, pear and pineapple are medium-high and bananas and grapes have the highest.

Depends on what you want to accomplish... if it is looking weight it will never happen.. I think a limit or two or three servings a day.. OR less... every serving has about 60 cal.. so six servings really add up!!

Im not trying to lose weight actually. im a thin girl

Well, if you are thin and eating plenty of fruit, rather than juices or candy or other things, I'd say that is a good thing. Depending on the type of fruit, it is full of nutrients, and yes, sugars too, but it is still better than a lot of alternatives.

Really, it all boils down to this: how do you feel? Do you feel good, or bad? Do have health problems because of the fruit? Listen to your body. It's true that it's bad to eat too much of something, but "too much" is a very relative thing. Four or five or six servings of fruit is not too much unless you have a specific goal or are having health problem.